Tech Top 5 News
BY Nosa Alekhuogie
Amid its ongoing crisis with the Kenyan authorities, Fluuterwave has received a switching and processing licence from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The company can now directly process financial transactions, which invariably means they can facilitate transactions between financial service providers, merchants, customers and other stakeholders.
The licence is also said to allow Flutterwave to connect every store of value in Nigeria to global commerce and increase control over its payment processes.
Commenting on the new license obtained, Flutterwave CEO Olugbenga Agboola said the move was a milestone in the company’s growth story.
“This is big news for our customers, partners, investors, and other stakeholders. Building a thriving payments ecosystem in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is in line with our goal of developing a world-class and secure payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers across the continent,” he said.
Flutterwave further added that the licence allows the firm to introduce new products and services.
In a statement by the company, the new license gives them greater control while reducing constraints.
It said, “With more oversight of the payment value chain, we can deliver an improved experience to our customers. The switching license gives us more room to operate and serve our customers while removing various constraints. This license is a game changer for us, our customers and we can’t wait for you to enjoy all that it offers.”
McKinsey: African Fintech Revenues to Reach 8X Current Value by 2025
A McKinsey report has said that African fintech revenues could reach eight times their current value by 2025.
The analysis also estimated that Africa’s financial-services market could grow at about 10 per cent per annum, reaching about $230 billion in revenues by 2025.
In the report, the success of fintech companies is fuelled by several trends, including increasing smartphone ownership, declining internet costs, expanded network coverage, and a young, fast-growing, and rapidly urbanising population.
McKinsey analysts, however, noted that the growth in financial services across Africa’s 54 countries would not be uniform.
“While the lion’s share of value in the market (approximately 40 per cent of revenues) is currently concentrated in South Africa, which has the most mature banking system in the continent, Ghana and francophone West Africa are expected to show the fastest growth, at 15 per cent and 13 per cent per annum respectively, until 2025,” said the analysts.
The report added that Nigeria and Egypt “follow each with an expected growth rate of 12 per cent per annum over the same period.”
“Overall, we anticipate that the growth opportunity in fintech is likely to be concentrated in 11 key markets: Nigeria, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, which together account for 70 per cent of Africa’s GDP and half of its population,” the report stated.
The analysis further showed that fintech players are delivering significant value to their customers. Their transactional solutions can be up to 80 per cent cheaper and interest on savings up to three times higher than those provided by traditional players, while the cost of remittances may be up to six times cheaper.
Growth4Her Launches Programme for Women Entrepreneurs
As part of its commitment to bridging the Gender Financing Gap in Africa, Growth4Her is providing adequate skills, knowledge, market access, and finance, advocating for better policies and an adequate representation for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises.
The organisation has launched and is accepting applications for its Growth4Her Accelerator, which provides women entrepreneurs with the capacity and tools to transition from small to high potential fundable growth stage businesses.
Growth4Her is a six-month Investor Readiness Accelerator Programme open to women in West and Central Africa and is currently running cohorts in Cameroon and Nigeria.
The application portal is currently open, and selected candidates will only be contacted when they have been selected for a new cohort. Each cohort is open to at least fifteen and at most twenty-five women.
It will open for six weeks for every new cohort starting from September 1 to October 7.
According to the organisation, beneficiaries are expected to answer basic, personal, and psychometric questions, which enables the expert team to tailor the program curriculum and content to the selected cohorts’ needs.
The programme is open to women SMEs looking to transition their businesses to growth-powered businesses as the program offers investor readiness training, psychosocial support, mentorship, access to financing opportunities and access to markets.
It is available in both English and French languages.
To be eligible to participate, the organisation should be at least 51 per cent owned by a woman or, at minimum 20 per cent owned by a woman and have at least a woman as CEO/COO (president/vice president); and have at minimum 30 per cent of its board of directors composed of women, provided there is a board.
Moove Partners Uber to Take EVs to UK
Nigerian Mobility Company, Moove, has partnered with Uber UK to take thousands of electric vehicles (EV) to London.
As a part of its expansion plans, it is expected to bring an additional 10,000 electric vehicles to London by the end of 2025, which will be available with no upfront costs or deposits, offering an improved driver experience while accelerating the electrification of mobility across the capital.
Moove’s approach to vehicle financing is designed to empower its customers with access to new, zero-emission vehicles with an easy sign-up process and no credit checks.
Its customers driving with Uber can reduce their weekly payments by using funds raised through Uber’s Clean Air Plan to help them meet the cost of switching to an EV. Uber’s Clean Air Plan has raised over £145M, equating to approximately £3,000 per driver.
Ladi Delano, the co-founder and co-CEO of Moove, said, “We are proud to have built a business in Africa to now be able to scale our model here in Europe, which is something that no other African fintech company has done before.”
Delano added that the move also “marks a milestone of firsts for us, as we are excited to be launching with our first 100 per cent EV fleet.”
We are thrilled to expand our partnership with Uber to drive our commitments towards the electrification of mobility,” he stated.
Twitter to Launch Edit Button for Paid Subscribers
Twitter has announced it will launch a new ‘Edit Tweet’ feature in the coming weeks.
According to the company, it is still being tested by a team internally. Edit Tweet is a feature that lets people change their tweets once posted.
As part of their subscription, they receive early access to features and help to test them before they come to Twitter.
The test will first be localised to a single country and expand as they learn and observe how people use Edit Tweet.
Although the edit function will only be available for a select group of paid users, “everyone will still be able to see if a Tweet has been edited,” the company said in a statement.
It added, ‘’During the test, you will be able to edit a tweet a ‘few times’ within 30 minutes after the post is initially published. This means you will not be able to edit old tweets that may have already gone viral and have been liked or retweeted by numerous users. Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more.”
Twitter said they hoped that, with the new button, tweeting would feel more approachable and less stressful.
The platform’s premium subscription service, known as Twitter Blue, is accessible in a few countries, including the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
